Coach Mike's appearance was generic. He did say one of his coaches is his son and the other son the incoming athlete will not be on scholarship. Coach said he will pay for his son out of pocket thereby being able to add another scholarship player. Not much else to report nothing about schedule, players or scholarships. He did say his goal is to communicate with the players so they can improve and be better. He said he is a better coach by learning from his failures.

Interesting that Davis is not burning a scholarship on his son. I believe that, per the UDM benefit policy, he gets tuition remission for his son. UDM applies this benefit immediately to new employees which is quite rare these days. But, coach will take a small tax hit. Plus we assume he's paying room and board fully out of pocket, which a scholarship MBB player would usually get for free.

The fact that he's not burning a scholarship on Antoine tells me Davis is (1) a really good person, because he's basically providing another young man the chance to be a college athlete and (2) smart as hell, because the expense he will personally pay to room and board his son is almost certainly worth the cost to develop an additional player.

"Anything that can be done in college basketball can be done from right here.” - Coach Davis

Commissioner wrote:Given that we only have about a half dozen scholarship players, this shows that Davis is pretty confident of adding some new recruits and transfers despite the lateness of the season.

Antoine is a freshman, so the benefit of Davis paying his son's freight will last for four years, not just this coming season (when there is no shortage of scholarships).

Commissioner wrote:Given that we only have about a half dozen scholarship players, this shows that Davis is pretty confident of adding some new recruits and transfers despite the lateness of the season.

Antoine is a freshman, so the benefit of Davis paying his son's freight will last for four years, not just this coming season (when there is no shortage of scholarships).

Yes, but I don't think there is anything that would prohibit him from being a scholarship player one year and not the next.

Thanks for the link, Scout. A nice interview. Straight to the point, and it gave Coach a chance to talk about what he's going to do and not dwell on what he's walking into.

I'm not overly concerned with his reluctance to be a recruiting road warrior as long as he has someone on his staff who is good at it. Many other high-profile coaches in football and basketball have assistants who do the digging and evaluating and then the head coach seals the deal. And I tend to think that Coach D's demeanor will score well with the parents, which is pretty important in getting kids to come to our city.

And, honestly speaking, I'm hoping for a coach who can teach and who can coach. We've had good recruiters whose players didn't get any better and who couldn't handle bench coaching work. I am expecting Coach D is going to take good players, improve them, have them work to the same goals, and that he can manage a game better than his predecessors. At least I hope so, because it's not a high bar.